For many, the end of plastic sacks - attracting rodents and leaving rubbish scattered across the roads - is a welcome sight.
For others, the questions are piling up fast. "Where will I store the bins?" "Will collection day turn into chaos on the roads?" "What if my bins aren't big enough"? The list goes on.
Crews delivered 156 bins to Westbourne Grove on Thursday, with each home receiving a bin for paper and cardboard, a bin for dry mixed recycling and a bin for residual black bag waste.
Outreach - Layla Ringwood, resident (left), spoke with SUEZ and the Council to praise the bins.(Image: Oliver Partridge)
And as they arrived at homes, accompanied by the team from Suez and council leader Daniel Cowan to answer questions, residents remained split.
Despite social media seemingly awash with criticism, residents in Westbourne Grove seemed pleased, on the whole.
Resident Layla Ringwood said: "I'm all for it - on a really windy day, we get rubbish end up in the road, which attracts vermin. I'm forever cleaning out bin bags.
"I'm geared up to having the bins. It looks nicer without sacks piled up high with animals ripping them open.
Fitting - Crews manually fitted the bins roadside.(Image: Oliver Partridge)
"My sister goes through 25 bin bags per week, which she can't store. She's jealous I've got bins because she can't have them with that amount of rubbish waiting for collection."
Residents praised elements, including assisted collection for vulnerable residents, visually impaired aid with sensory indicators to differentiate bins, and the use of the Southend Waste app to stay up to date with collection information.
Another resident, Kim Elks, said the change is "positive for us all".
Storage - Nikki Rowland's front garden struggles to store the bins.(Image: Oliver Partridge)
Judith Birch added: "I'm sure I'll get used to it over time. I'm just so set in my ways with the process I've always known. I do think it will keep the street tidier, and will be revolutionary for small households to contain their rubbish.
"People have moaned about bin collections causing mayhem for traffic down here, but it seems they have a system in place.
"I think it's a change for the better. I just hope they can live up to the efficient service they've described to me."
One of those not fully convinced was Nikki Rowland, who fears the wheelie bins will be difficult to store and worries collections every two weeks are not frequent enough.
Confusion - Some residences received too few bins as crews couldn't tell some houses from flats.(Image: Oliver Partridge)
She said: "Wheeling them in and out from the garden is difficult with no storage space. I don't really want these.
"They will probably get smashed to pieces and it'll be an effort to clean them. The transition should've been opt in, not opt out.
"We have more recycling than normal rubbish. Once a week collection is bad enough, let alone every other week. We will get overspill."
Daniel Cowan, leader of Southend Council, said: "We have delivered the bins to every household and will deal with appeals afterwards to ensure they get out by service start on October 28.
"People are getting used to a new service, and we've seen appeals on both sides. Different people have different ability for storage and garden space and understandably prefer to not have the new bins."
Residents can submit an appeal over wheelie bins on the council website.